Fish Balls

Set up for a little experimentation. I haven't done this since I cooked the history of crab cakes for my mother and brother several years ago. I'd read about some kind of Scandinavian fish ball. I'd also been reading about frying crickets and grasshoppers and I'd caught a few larger green grasshoppers in the last few days, which I was keeping alive in an aquarium with a screen top. Samara and I used to keep exotic frogs. And I figured I could fry the grasshoppers in the oil after I had done my fish balls. Peanut oil is expensive, and I also intended to cook some fishy french fries before I threw it out. Grasshoppers are 50% protein. Any white flaky cooked fish is fine, catfish, cod, pollack, whatever is cheap. Buy the frozen fillets, poach them in white wine with some lemon juice and rosemary. I used instant mashed potatoes because I didn't want to spend another day considering potatoes, made a batch in the morning, and let them set out, so they would dry a bit. Finely minced a couple of shallots and part of a sweet red pepper, caramelized them, then made several generations of fried fish balls. They don't need breading, the potato browns readily; and they don't need anything but a squeeze of lemon. My favorite, I think, too many fish balls jade the brain, were the flounder, delicate and almost sweet. I had the second one with a garlic mayo and it was the highlight of my day. To prepare a grasshopper or cricket you pull off the wings and the small legs, I think this is just because they tickle the tongue, then you pinch the head and pull out the viscera attached. Let them dry in the sun for a couple of hours, and fry them in fish oil. Quite good, nutty. The fries were exceptionally good, complex and crisp, and I swirled them in that same garlic mayo. I read an Elmore Leonard, at the island, while I was playing with this, and his dialogue had me laughing out loud. Most minnows are a species of carp, if they're longer than two inches, I clip off their head and gut them, if they're smaller than that I don't bother, roll them in corn flour and fry them. I gotta go, big thunder storms. Tornado warnings.